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I haven’t been baking for a while as I moved house and the new kitchen… has potential. But a bit limiting at the moment! SO I have set up a baking station in one of the other rooms for now. And so I couldn’t resist making a couple of different cupcakes!

baking station

First up:

Ginger cupcakes

Ingredients

For cupcakes:

200g unsalted butter (room temperature) or sunflower spread if you want to make them a bit healthier which I did!

175g dark soft brown sugar (you can use any soft brown sugar if you don’t have the dark stuff in)

3 tablespoons black treacle

150ml milk (semi skimmed is fine)

4 chunks of stem ginger, chopped

2 free range eggs

300g self raising flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

pinch of salt

For the frosting:

140g unsalted butter (room temperature)

2 teaspoons lemon juice

4 tablespoons ginger syrup (from the jar of stem ginger)

300g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160 fan/gas mark 4 and line two muffin trays with cupcake cases (makes 18).

2. Melt the butter/sunflower spread, sugar and treacle in a saucepan over a low heat, then leave to cool before stirring in the milk.

ready to melt

3. Beat the eggs in a bowl and then add the chopped stem ginger – beat this into the melted butter mixture.

stirring

4. Add the flour, ground ginger and salt to the mixture and stir to combine thoroughly.5. Spoon into the cupcake cases and bake for 30 minutes – a skewer inserted should come out clean.

6. Leave to cool on a cooling tray whilst you make the frosting.

7. Beat the butter with an electric whisk until smooth, then add the rest of the ingredients and beat for about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy – you will see the colour change from yellow to almost white.

8. Add the frosting – I dolloped it on with a spoon and swirled it around, if you want to pipe the icing you may need to make a larger batch.

someone’s watching…

Next up:

Banana and chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

125g unsalted butter (room temperature) or sunflower spread

250g caster sugar

2 free range eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 ripe bananas, mashed (based on ‘average’ banana size – I only used three as mine were huge, but then again I don’t think you can ever have too much banana in a cake

175g dark chocolate chopped or broken into pieces

For the frosting:

125g chocolate

50g butter (if you are using eating chocolate like Cadburys then you can cut out most of the butter or it will end up really greasy)

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

chopped candied peel (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 fan/gas mark 4 and line a muffin tray with cupcake cases (makes 12)

2. Cream the butter and sugar (electric mixer is easiest) for about 5 minutes until pale and smooth.

3. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla and beat again to combine.

4. Add the flour and baking powder and beat again until well combined.

it was all yellow…

5. Stir in the mashed banana and chopped chocolate, then spoon into cupcake cases and bake for about 25 minutes – a skewer inserted should come out clean.

Chopped chocolate

6. Leave to cool on a cooling tray whilst you make the frosting.

7. Melt the chocolate, butter and syrup in a bain marie (or in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot water), stir until smooth then add the vanilla and stir until smooth again. Stir in the candied peel if using. Dollop on the cupcakes!

Crush the biscuits with a pestle and mortar (a few at a time will let you get smaller crumbs) or seal the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush them to fine crumbs with a rolling pin. Tip into a bowl and stir in the melted butter, mixing thoroughly so that all the crumbs are soaked.

buttery biscuit base…

Tip the mixture into a DEEP loose-bottomed 24cm round cake tin, at least 5cm deep, which has the base lined with baking parchment (if you don’t do this you will find it hard to get the biscuit base away from the tin base when you come to serve it) and press down with the back of a metal spoon to make an even layer over the bottom of the tin. Chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

Submerge the gelatine leaves in a dish of cold water, and leave to soak and soften for 5 minutes. Pour the single cream into a pan and bring just to the boil, then take off the heat. Take the gelatine leaves out of the water, give them a squeeze to get rid of excess water, and stir one by one into the cream (they will dissolve instantly). Leave to cool for a few minutes.

Beat the cheese in a bowl with the sugar, lemon zest and juice until smooth and creamy. Mix in the single cream and gelatine mixture and the raspberries.

soft peaks

In another bowl, lightly whip the whipping or double cream so it falls in soft peaks, then fold it into the strawberry mixture.

cheescake mixture

Whisk the egg white in a clean bowl until it forms stiff peaks, then fold gently into the cheese mixture. Pour into the cake tin and smooth down lightly. Chill for at least 21⁄2 hours until set, overnight is great.

egg whisk

Make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients together in a pan over a medium heat and bubble until reduced to a syrupy consistency. Pour through a sieve to remove the seeds (the mixture will take ages to go through but you will get more than you first think you will) and leave to cool, then put in a piping bag with the end snipped off and pipe dots of the sauce in a spiral pattern on the cheesecake from the centre out. Mine blobbed a bit in places, but don’t worry about it!

Take a toothpick, think skewer or something similar and draw a line through each dot so they run together in something like a heart pattern. Ta-dah!

Pancake Day seems like the worst idea for eating gluten free, but these pancakes taste just like the ‘real’ thing and are dead easy! Note: these are traditional English pancakes e.g. like crepes, not the thick American style ones.

A bit belated because somehow I never seem to get myself together to make them actually on pancake day (or anywhere near it!) but pancakes are always good aren’t they! And a great idea for weekend brunch…

Ingredients:

125g gluten-free plain flour

1 free range egg

250ml milk

oil (for frying)

Method:

Whisk the ingredients together in a bowl to make a smooth batter.

Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and allow to heat through properly.

Pour or ladle just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan, swirl around to cover it all.

Use an egg flip to lift the edges, and swoosh the pan around – the pancake shouldn’t stick but should move easily. Quite quickly (after about a minute) you should be able to flip it (use the egg flip if you struggle to toss it!) and then cook for another minute on the other side.

So far I am only part way through the practice designs, but I can’t wait to give the proper ones a go! Who knows, maybe this time next year I will be cutting out my own designs – its certainly inspiring.

This recipe is perfect for when you need to rustle up a quick dessert, or if you aren’t very confident with baking cheesecake. I know from bitter experience that the base of a cheesecake is harder to make than it looks, and as soon as you slice into it the whole thing can fall apart! This recipe makes several smaller cheesecakes in individual pots so there is no need to worry about slicing. Also, unlike other ‘quick’ cheesecake recipes I have seen, this one really is – you can make it and pop it in the fridge just before you serve the main course and it will be ready to eat by the time you have finished. No need to chill overnight!

It would also be a great dessert for valentines day, especially if you can find a heart shaped pot like these to make it in: Stoneware Heart Ramekins – Le Creuset. It is so quick to make you can then relax and enjoy the evening!

Ingredients:

150ml double cream

150g Philadelphia cream cheese

good shake of icing sugar

pack of Oreo cookies

You will also need about 6 ramekins/teacups/small pots.

Method:

First, you need to break up the Oreo cookies. I used a pestle and mortar, but you can bash them up inside their packet using a rolling pin or other heavy implement!

pestle and mortar

Put a little of the ground cookies to one side (to sprinkle on top later) and divide the rest between the ramekins so that the base of each has a good covering. Push it down a bit to form a slightly firmer base (the cream of the cookies will help them stick together, so you don’t need to add butter as you often do when making a cheesecake base).

cheesecake bases

Whip the double cream in a bowl until it forms soft peaks, then add the cream cheese and a good shake of icing sugar and beat it all together. Taste a bit and add a bit more icing sugar if you want it sweeter.

Spoon the cream mixture over the cheesecake base (you can spread it out, leave it as a dollop or however you want to do it) then sprinkle the remaining ground cookies on the top.

Pop in the fridge for as little or as long as you like – the longer you leave it, the firmer the cream topping will be but I found it perfectly fine after an hour.

I usually don’t bother with pre-mixed packets of cake or bread as I feel you are paying a premium just to save the effort of weighing ingredients out (a job I actually enjoy doing!) but with a gluten free friend coming to stay over Christmas I decided it might be worth giving them a shot – otherwise I tend to buy in lots of gluten free flour etc that mostly gets wasted.

First up: gluten free oats. This may sound strange as oats are naturally gluten free, however the way they are processed and packaged can cause contamination and my friend has found she cannot eat normal oats. These gluten free ones however were fine for her, which meant we could make delicious porridge, muesli and flapjack – so that was breakfast sorted!

Next we tried the bread mix:

gluten free bread

The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and with the help of my trusty kitchenaid also fairly quick, although you could knead the mix by hand otherwise. As you can see the mix does not rise very much, but this is typical of gluten free baking so don’t worry about that. In terms of taste and texture my friend assures me this bread is perfectly normal and ends up quite similar to the packaged gluten free bread found in the supermarket. For me this let it down a bit, as I had hoped it would taste a little moister and fresher than those pre-packaged breads – but it was fun to make! A word of warning if you haven’t eaten gluten free bread before ( as I hadn’t), it is a very different beast to ‘normal’ bread so you may need to amend your expectations!

Finally we played with the final package that I had most been looking forward to – the brownie mix!

gluten free brownies

To be fair you can’t really go wrong with brownies, and its not hard to make them gluten free from scratch. However if someone isn’t a keen baker this certainly makes it a lot easier, with no faffing around remembering to buy all the ingredients. The instructions were clear, it was quick to make and tasted delicious (especially with some cream and raspberries on top!). It was much nicer and gooey-ier than the shop bought gluten free brownies so certainly worth a try.

Like this:

A healthy(ish) dessert for beating the January blues… without breaking too many resolutions! No cake, pastry or chocolate involved here amazingly – and the cream is optional (but delicious). Its also really easy to make it gluten free.

winter sun

Crumbles are amazing winter comfort food, all stodgy and full of flavour, but this one uses summer berries to remind us that winter won’t be around for ever! You can of course use whatever fruit you wish, but I used a mixture of strawberries and raspberries for a really sunny hit.

30g ground almonds (or you could miss out this ingredient and add an extra 30g of flour)

110g butter, cubed

75g soft brown sugar

fruit

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/160 for fan/gas mark 4 and find an ovenproof container to make the crumble in (pyrex or enamel dishes work well, I love the look of the enamel dish).

Put the fruit into a large bowl (raspberries can go in whole, but either half or quarter the strawberries into similar size pieces), sprinkle over the tablespoon of sugar and gently stir and then spread over the base of the dish.

sugary fruit!

Put the flour and butter into a large bowl and rub together with your fingertips to make ‘breadcrumbs’ then add the sugar and ground almonds and mix together.

Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and press it down a little, then pop in the oven for 30-40 minutes depending on how crispy you like the topping to be.

summer crumble in winter

Serve warm – usually I would serve custard with a crumble, but I think this one tastes best with cream or yogurt to go with the summery flavours. Enjoy!